The invention relates to an apparatus for conveying cigarette groups in or in conjunction with a packaging machine from a receiving station to a delivery station, especially a continuously rotating (folding) turret, by means of a pocket conveyor with pockets, each intended for receiving a cigarette group.
The transport of cigarette groups, each corresponding to the content of a cigarette pack, in conjunction with their packaging presents a special problem. On the one hand, the cigarette groups should be transported at high speed, without being damaged. On the other hand, the conveying member should guarantee exact relative positions for pushing the cigarette groups into pockets of the conveyor and pushing them out of these.
To achieve high performance of a cigarette packaging machine, whilst at the same time ensuring careful treatment of the delicate cigarettes, it is necessary to convey the cigarette groups continuously during the time when they are combined with blanks to form the pack and when folding operations are carried out. On the other hand, because the cigarettes are supplied to the packaging machine in a disorderly fashion and not yet in groups, it is indispensable first to form cigarette groups in succession according to the formation and size of the content of the pack and then introduce them in succession into the flow of movement of the packaging machine. The problem is, therefore, to change from an intermittent supply of cigarette groups (or other articles to be packaged) to a continuous cycle of movement.